Particulate Matter 2.5 Data

Over a period of 7 months, 30 Speck devices were used by citizens in Susquehanna, Wyoming, Bradford and Sullivan counties in northeastern Pennsylvania, USA, to collect PM2.5 data.

Because there is a relative absence of air quality monitoring in this rural location of Pennsylvania (as most air quality monitoring is concentrated in urban regions, and hydraulic fracturing is exempt from most federal-level environmental monitoring), this citizen-gathered dataset provides a unique and spatially dense dataset for the region. Monitoring locations can also be compared and contrasted for differences in regional and local pollution sources.

This is also the first citizen-gathered air quality dataset using digital environmental sensors and data analysis to demonstrate clear patterns of pollution levels and sources from hydraulic fracturing, as discussed in the 5 data stories that look more closely at the data. The PM2.5 open data is available on the Citizen Sense Airsift PM2.5 Data Analysis Toolkit.